“In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves. . . .” (Zechariah 12:8, NKJV)
A time is coming when the Lord will pour out grace and the spirit of prayer on those who once rejected and pierced Him. He will make the feeble great and protect them against their enemies. But first they will mourn and repent.
The six most difficult words are, “I was wrong, I am sorry.” However, sorrow for sin always comes first, before victory and blessing. Before I can expect God to do anything for me, I must first be in that place of grace where my sins are acknowledged and confessed.
Why is it so hard to get there? Why is admission of guilt so difficult? Pride? Fear? An incomplete view of God? Whatever my reasons, confessing sin is so difficult that I’ve started to think no one would do it without God giving the grace. As it says here, He pours out the grace, THEN the people look at Jesus, THEN they grieve for Him and what they have done.
While the entire nation will grieve, this is a personal grief. Every family is sorrowful by itself, but also every wife, by herself. It has always been like this. I can feel badly about the sins of others, but what draws me near to God is being sorrowful for my own sin, for what I have done against Him. Also tied to this is the realization that Jesus is not mere man, nor mere prophet, nor mere teacher. He is God. “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.”
Sometimes the reality of what God has done for me through the death of His Son is so overwhelming there are few words. My sin has been punished at the Cross. I’d not realized that unless He gave me sorrow for His death and my part in it. Even sorrow for sin is a gift of grace. He gave me that sorrow so I might receive and enjoy total forgiveness.
What is there to say? Praise God.
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